Hapeville police officer surprises hard working teen

HAPEVILLE, Ga. — A police officer thought he was investigating a possible trespassing but a tip ended with an act of kindness, instead.

Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen met with the officer who encountered a 16-year-old boy who was actually trying to help his family.

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In his seven years on the job with the Hapeville Police Department, Ofc. Eric Colleran knows that some investigations are not what they seem.

“You might be told one thing over the radio, and when you show up on scene it’s something completely different,” Colleran said.

Like last week’s call of a reported trespasser in a neighborhood along North Avenue. That’s where he found 16-year-old Keonte Evans.

“I’m guessing you didn’t see it coming,” Petersen asked. “No! Not at all. It just came out of the blue. It came like a miracle,” Evans said.

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The person who called the police was unaware that Evans had been hired to do some yard work.

Colleran quickly sorted out the misunderstanding and learned Evans was trying to earn money to buy his five younger brothers and sisters some school clothes and buy himself a PlayStation 5.

They parted company, and a couple of days later Colleran returned with a little surprise in the trunk of his patrol car: The video game console.

He got a hug for that, and after taking it inside Evans bolted out of his house and hugged him again.

“Somebody did this for you. The game is so expensive. You can’t do anything but be so excited. So, I gave him a hug. A big hug at that. A very big hug. It’s so sweet. Many people don’t do these things for kids,” Evans said.

“I didn’t do any of this to end up on the news. I was just trying to help him out and let him understand that if you work hard and are honest, good things will come to you,” Colleran said.

Evans is still looking for a part-time job to help his mom buy school clothes. In the meantime, he has played the video game every day since he received it.

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